November 2005 — MacAdemic/Mac Educator

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A Digital Doorway to the World

by Larry S. Anderson

Gathering Support
Music is a universal, international language— a common denominator among youth, regardless of the barriers set between them. Students demonstrate amazing talent at creating music because it is so much a part of their lives. Recognizing this, McGuire decided that music would be the means for building bridges between students in multiple nations. She realized, too, that all the necessary software tools had been delivered inside the little white iBook. When she proposed the idea to her students, they were ecstatic. Now all she had to do was locate other students who would join with her own, to create music that would form a “learning bridge” that could be crossed together.

An Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE), McGuire sought out expertise from within her network of ADE friends who attended Camp Apple at California State University-Monterey in July 2004. She explained that she needed volunteer teachers who could provide technical assistance to help her get a new project off the ground—a project that would link her students with students in other countries. The virtual hands started going up. Soon, she had recruited teachers from eight classrooms on six continents, and had all the tech support she needed.

The only thing remaining was a project name, which was settled on shortly. Thus began the hugely successful undertaking of “Rock Our World.” The software was GarageBand. The connection was iChat AV using iSight cameras. The focus was students. The vehicle was music.

The Making of a Global Soundtrack
Each of the eight classes of students created one track of music using GarageBand. Then, every Friday, each class e-mailed its track to another team in the project. Students received the file, then added their new track (a new instrument each week) to the file, and then sent the file along to the next class. GarageBand tracks literally circled the globe each week. When they made the full circle and returned to their home schools, the students heard how their original track had inspired students in other nations to build upon what they had composed. Interestingly, all the original songs posted on the Rock Our World Web site (http://www.rockourworld.org) have different sounds, even though the same students worked on all the songs. This was a genuine global collaboration.

Using iSight cameras, the students chatted with one another during the project and learned about culture, education, finance, and their impressions of each other’s tracks. This was a phenomenal learning exercise for all classes involved. Upon conclusion of the project, McGuire held a series of live presentations in which participating schools came online and discussed their experiences.

Rock Our World was such an achievement that it has gone through two more iterations. It also was selected as the focus of an Emmy-nominated TV production by a local PBS member station that was broadcast worldwide to more than 10 million homes. This success prompted McGuire to ask, “How’s that for inspiration for teachers who allow their students to learn in their own language?”